MILLENIUM 2.2 (?) (?)

Players guide:

Getting started:

Getting to grips with the seven departments, or 'nodes' of the moonbase should be your top priority from the outset. It's important to remember that the seperate departments cannot function independently - they all rely on what's supplied by the moonbase's other facilities.

RESOURCE:
The resource unit - the facility which provides raw materials for use in the production department - requires 50 personnel and 30kwh of power to function efficiently. If either of these factors drop below these levels, the mine will shut down automatically. At the outset the mine is switched off, and it should be turned on immediatly in order to build up a stock of materials. Later on in the game, when there is no need to manufacture more materials, the mine should be shut down to reduce demand on the power generator.

FLIGHT BAYS:
The facility to individually name all of your ships is a necessity. Don't give your ships meaningless names - name them logically so you can remember what the ship's purpose is just by glancing at it.

LIFE SUPPORT:
The moonbase MUST be manned by at least 50 personnel at all times. Since the bog-standard life support unit can only hold 100 people, the unit must be expanded if you want to man any ships (if crewing a ship will reduce the base's population to less than 50, you will not be allowed to do so - simple as that). On the moon, six modules can be fitted, allowing a populous of 600 people. On alien colonies, however, nodules cannot be added. Fortunately, due to the atmosphere on alien worlds, colonists stationed there are likely to mutate and live outside the base on the planet surface - allowing potentially limitless populations!

DEFENCE:
Orbital laser are much more efficient than fighters - and you don't have to rely on your arcade skills! Build up a large reserve of these and use fighters only as a last resort. When an alien attack does hit the mark, you're only likely to lose a small number of personnel (which replace themselves automatically) and a solagen, so keep some of these in reserve in the bunker.

RESEARCH:
This facility provides information on equipment and planets in the galaxy. Researching a piece of equipment couldn't be easier - jusr select it and wait - but planets are not so simple. For data to be acquired on these, you must send a probe there to inspect it and wait for it to send back its findings. Depending on the distance to the planet, this can take anything from a few days to over a year.

COLONISATION:
Vital. This is the only way you can acquire materials not available on the moon. Don't send colonies willy nilly - study the probe's analysis of the target planet carefully and make sure it holds the materials you need before sending a Standard Interplanetary Operations Spacecraft (SIOS). Once a colony is established, start up a chain of Carracks to ferry materials and equipment back and forth.

BASE:
Each section of the moonbase requires an absolute minimum of 1kwh at all times - thus the energy plant must generate at least 7kwh to keep the moonbase 'alive'. Building ships and equipment, life support and mining materials require yet more energy. For maksimum moonbase eficiency, you should give priority to upgrading the energy plant by adding extras solagens - don't stop until you have a Mk X, the most powerful solagen of all, raking in a massive 35,010kwh.

In general:

Use the 'advance day' facility whenever possible - it's and absolute necessity when waiting for ships to complete long journeys and so on.

Base fighters come equipped with a useful facility for use in ship-to-ship combat. If you lose your bearings, hit the right mouse button to instantly return the fighter to its correct X-Y axis.

Establish as many colonies as you can - in the later stages of the game, some colonies will declare independence and cut off all communication with you. If that colony was providing vital raw materials, it's useful to have another to fall back on.

Ships:

Apart from the probe, there are three types of ship, each with its own strenghts and weaknesses. Here's a rundown...

GRAZER: Used for mining asteroids - these should be built first as they provide the materials needed to build a S I O S:

WAVERIDER: Use whenever you need speedy cargo transport. It flies at twice the speed of any other ship.

CARRACK: The perfect workhorse, the Carrack is best used for carrying large amounts of cargo. Can carry almost anything.

A GUIDE TO PLANETBUILDING:
First of all, go to the ENERGY block and switch on the SOLAGEN MK 1. Then switch on the resource station. Research and build the SOLAGEN MK 2, (To speed up the researching and building of the SOLAGEN MK 2 advance through the day). If at any time you can't SHUT DOWN the resource station if this fails to work, you obviously don't have enough energy. (Note; you must start with SOLAGEN MK 1 and work up - for example, SOLAGEN MK 1 then MK 2 then MK 3 and so on, otherwise you will have insuficient energy to build. You have to research each SOLAGEN to build it.

DEALING WITH THE OCCASIONAL MARTIAN ATTACK:
During the first year the Martians will notify you of their presence, and that they claim ownership of Earth. Don't worry too much about them as they only attack about Earth. Dont worry too much about them as they only attack about twice year and they do very little damage. You can stop them from attacking by buiding fighter or Orhital lasers (which can only be used once) - as soon as they are built they are ready to attack. During an attack, just click on the DEFENCE block and select your mean of defence (as long as it's there).

RESEARCHING PLANETS AND MOONS:

To be able to colonise other planets you will have to send a probe out to them. The probe must also be reserched and built before use. First of all build 8 probes (8 Probes is all that the FLlGHT BAY can hold) and name them. Then set their destination to the following place: CALLlSTO; LEDA; TlTAN; HYPERION; RHEA; ENCELADUS; PHOEBE; TRITON. These are places that CAN be colonised. Then build another 8 probes and send them to URANUS; SATURN; MIRANDA; ARIEL; PLUTO; NEPTUNE; OBERON; TlTANlA then build one last probe and end it to UMBlEL. Then once the probe have reached their destination land them on that moon/planet, and research the planet. Once this is done save the game as GAME 4, this is so you won't lose the record of the planets and moons.

SETTING UP COLONIES:
Now you will want to colonise other moons and planets, to do this you will need an S I O S - which has to be researched under the Transportation column in the research block. You will need at least a SOLAGEN MK 8 to be able to produce it and 1OO tons of Platinum, which can be found by building a Grazer and sending it out to the ASTEROIDS where you must leave it until it has found a asteroid suitble for mining, where you must leave your Grazer, you will have the option to take or leave the asteroid, otherwise let it continue scanning. It's a good idea to build 5 or 6 Grazer and send them out to the asteroid as there is usually only about 2O ton o platinum on each one. When you have enough energy and platinum you can buid your S I O S. Build your first S I O S for the moon CALLISTO and one it has been bulit, leave it in the moon orbit, then build a CARRACK. When this has been built go to the flight bays and load the CARRACK up with an OBlTAL LASER, a FlGHTER (for defence), and a SOLAGEN MK 1O (for energy). Now send the CALLISTO BASE to Callisto, and launch the CARRACK containing the above stated equipment. This enables you to run and defend CALLlSTO a soon a the base arrives.

MARTIAN SUBJUGATION:
Simple really - sometime during your planet-colonising years, you will receive a message from one of your Colony Commanders telling you that a Martian fleet carrier has crashed into an asteroid leaving you with its blueprints letting you research and build your own Fleet Carrier (you must have colonised TRITON, CALLISTO and LEDA for your Colony Commanders to find the fleet carrier). As with everything though, there is a catch. You'll need a substantial amount of silver, aluminium, titanium, iron and silica. CALLISTO base should supply you with the amount of silver required and the moons TITAN, RHEA and TETHYS should provide you with the other supplies. Build a few more CARRACKS and send them to these moons. Fill them with the goods and return them to MOONBASE where you should be able to build your FLEET CARRIER.

When built put three or four fighters in its hold assign a crew and set its destination for MARS. It will come under Martian attack en route, so send out a fighter and it shouldn't be too difficult to overcome the Martian craft. When their fleet of nine have been destroyed the Martians give you a nice smile and surrender their planet.

Some hints for easy completion of the game:

  1. Don't establish to many bases or you spend all your time defending them from the martians. It's possible to finish the game with only three. There's no point in establishing a base somewhere that doesn't have vital resources. The most useful bases are Callisto, Titan and Triton.

  2. Triton is the only place that has Chromium - and you need that later on in the game. Since it's far away it's a good idea to send a probe and establish a base there early on in the game.

  3. If a base loses all its colonists, dismantle one of the Carracks or Waveriders and the crew can repopulate the base.

  4. New bases needs at least one fighter, and orbital laser and a solar battery. Send these in a Carrack because Waveriders aren't able to transport the necessary equipment for some planets.

  5. Successful Martian attacks tend to destroy your most powerful solar battery. Store them in the hold of a Carrack or in the bunker for safety.

  6. You will have to turn off your refinery to get enough power to build a fleet carrier.

  7. As soon as you start converting your fleet carrier your moon base will be totally destroyed. Unfortunately there's not much you can do about it. Just repopulate the base and store a battery as above.

  8. After this your colonies start declaring independence. Again there's not much you can do about it. Any ships you land on independent colonies are lost. Just make sure you get as many resources to the moon before this happens.

  9. If you're stuck for materials for the earth base dismantle all your ships and use their raw material.
More tips:

When you have completed your colonisation of MARS and subsequently won over the affections of the Martians, you'll be notified by the Martian leader about a TERRAFORMER, a nifty little gadget which will enable the recolonisation of Earth. First you will need to spend some time researching it and then building it with Chromium which can be found on TRITON. A message will appear shortly afterward telling you that your Fleet Carrier can be transformed into a Juggernaut which is the only craft capable of transporting the 1060 tons of TERRAFORMER to Earth. Send the necessary to Earth and go on your hols for a year.

In the midst of all this one of you bases will be attacked by Martians but an orbital laser should take care of the situation. Later on the situation with the other colonies starts to deteriorate declaring themselves independent, effectively shutting them off from your control. Finally send a probe to Earth, select research, and follow up with a volunteer mission and an S I O S and Presto! Sit back and watch the finishing effect.

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